1. Technical Field
The invention is related to a system and method of customizing a software program, in this case a presentation program, to provide a user with a graphical representation of the order of elements in an animation sequence on a display device. The invention could, however, be equally well applied to other software applications, such as, for example, Internet web-site authoring software, electronic mail programs, and drawing and flowcharting software.
2. Background Art
Electronic presentations often use computer graphics to enhance the presented material thereby giving the audience an immediate grasp of the information presented. Common examples of such graphics include bar charts, pie charts, text animation and organizational charts. Additionally, many electronic presentations use animation, the adding of a special visual or sound effect to text or an object, to enhance these graphics.
Animation is a powerful way to attract and sequence users' attention in an electronic presentation. It is possible to animate text, graphics, diagrams, charts, and other objects to focus an audience on important points, control the flow of information, and add interest to a presentation. Animation in a presentation occurs when objects or animation effects on these objects in a slide are scheduled by the user to appear in a prescribed sequence. When the user then inputs a command for one or more of the objects or effects to appear, they appear in a certain order. For example, a user can have a text bullet on a slide fly into the slide from the left, one word at a time, or hear the sound of applause when a picture is uncovered.
Animation is a temporally continuous phenomenon, but is typically programmed in terms of a discrete sequence of changes. One of the problems facing an author producing an animated presentation is that it can be difficult to know which elements in the presentation they have animated, and in which sequence the animation will replay.
Existing software that employs animation shows the animation sequence order in a list. This makes it difficult to reconcile the order in which elements are going to animate because the names of elements can be confusing or unfamiliar (such as, for example, the elements can be file names). Mental effort is required to match the list to what is being shown in the animation editor, where the animation is composed for later viewing by an audience. Users have complained that they cannot tell which objects on the slides are animated, nor can they determine the sequence of animation effects.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for representing or displaying the order of objects and effects in an animation sequence that makes it simple for a user to determine which elements are animated and the order in which they are animated.